Page 26

CHAPTER 26

RUN… AGAIN.

THEODORE

“R un,” Jax snarls, and, in a flash, he’s out of his seat, face-to-face with me. It takes me looking at his face for all of half of a second to realize I’ve fucked up.

Spinning on my heel, I take off in a full sprint around the house and through the backyard, dodging and spinning around heavily intoxicated college kids with cups of god knows what in them. And as my feet find purchase step after step, I find myself worrying about Jax’s knee…

But I tell myself that he’s been cleared to play, and nothing can be worse than putting his knee through a game. A simple stroll through the woods shouldn’t be an issue, right ?

As we reach the woodline, I can hear his footsteps way closer than I would like them to be.

I guess that answers my question. His knee seems to be in tip-top shape. I pick up my speed, trying to get some space between us.

Between pants, Jax grits out, “You better pick it up, Mr. Young.”

“When did you get so fast?” I ask, not bothering to turn around and risk slowing down.

“Is the old age getting to you?” I hear him jump over the same branch I nearly just tripped over. “Or do you want to be caught?”

Do I?

Sure, I want to see what he has planned for me.

But, what’s he going to do?

How far is he willing to go?

Right as the dirty thoughts start running through my head, I feel his breath so close I can practically feel it ghost the back of my neck. He’s on my heels. Literally. Jax steps on the back of my shoes, which causes me to fall forward, hurtling toward the ground. I manage to get my hand out in front of me and roll into the fall slightly, careful not to actually hurt myself and end up in the hospital.

This is why health care providers hate Halloween, isn’t it?

Rolling over, I look up to find Jax standing above me with his arms crossed, looking down at me like I’m a pile of trash—pure hatred lining his features.

“You really thought this”—he points his finger up and down my body while snarling—“was going to be enough for me to start this all over again? That one look at you in this costume would be enough to throw away all of the work I did over the summer? That somehow this-this little game would be enough to make me forget?”

Gasping for breath, I lay on the ground, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath. Except he’s not breathing heavily because he’s out of shape. No—he’s absolutely fucking livid. As much as I regret what my answer is about to be, I know there’s no use in denying it. Lying is how we got here in the first place. Relenting, I sigh heavily. “Yeah…”

“Too bad. It’s not.” His eyes run up and down my lying form again, and the embarrassment that’s coursing through my veins should be enough for me to get up and take my sorry ass back across the street. But it’s not…

Do I have a humiliation kink or something? I’m starting to think I might, because what sane person acts like this?

“What do?—”

He cuts me off. “Nope. I’ve heard enough, Theo. You. Have. A. Fiancée. You’re getting fucking married.” The words sound like poison on his tongue. “Why are you doing this? Why do you insist on continuously trying to fuck with me and my life?”

I sit on his words for a minute, not wanting to say something I don’t mean, but he takes my silence as me having nothing to say. “You’re fucking pathetic, Theo. Go home and leave me alone.”

Without so much as another breath in my direction, Jackson heads back toward his house, and I tuck my tail and start my way toward the road, all while scolding myself about how much of a dumbass I am for not doing right by him. Especially when he’s doing everything he can to do right by himself.

“You’re fucking pathetic, Theo.”

Everytime I think of his words it feels like a razor to my skin.

But I don’t disagree.

I am pathetic.

Why can’t I just explain everything to him?

If I don’t tell him that my engagement is nothing but a scam, a setup, a lie, there will never be a “Jax and Theo.”

But as his words repeat in my head, I can’t help but realize that after everything I’ve done, he doesn’t want there to be a “Jax and Theo.”

And that thought alone makes me want to carve my beating heart out of my chest and throw it into the Gulf of Mexico for the closest shark to eat up.